Warren Klein is new to the Stamford scene but is here to share how his new move turned out better than expected. He gets by with a little help from his new Zog friends.

When I moved to Stamford in September without knowing anyone in the area, I half expected to spend my evenings like an old cat lady, without the cats: talking to myself and shuffling around aimlessly. Don’t get me wrong, I have great conversations with myself, but I always know what I’m about to say and finish my own sentences, which can be frustrating since I hate being interrupted. I knew I needed to reach out into the city of Stamford and see what I could find; otherwise a trip to the looney bin may have been in order.

Enter Zog, no, not the gate keeper, nor the key master, but a great organization that sweats fun, and bleeds awesome. I found them at the recommendation of a friend from New York. This was apparently a new extension of the organization into Stamford and they clearly led with their best foot forward. The GM Devin is an effervescently bubbly league manager who is consistently seen laughing, answering questions about the league, and playing a mean game of beer pong. The refs for our games are knowledgeable and fun to shoot the sh*% with as well.

I have to say, as great as the staff is, the league itself is what makes ZogSports tick. Put simply, the organized games are designed to facilitate fun. Putting together a group of 10+ strangers can sometimes be a recipe for disaster, but I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a warmer group of people that fit together so well with so many different personalities.

We began the year on a high note, with a few of us meeting for drinks before the first game was played. This established the tone for the season: this league was about meeting young fun people in the Stamford area. The pre and post game trips to the sponsored bar became a weekly release of stress for all of us who participated in the epic “Team Dodge Burgandy” experience. Bar nights progressed to game nights at the various team members apartments, and even a Super Bowl party at my place (which admittedly was an abysmal failure because Peyton Manning forgot to put his big boy shoes on before leaving his hotel that morning). Seriously, what a terrible Super Bowl.

Through the season the hilarity continued; we discovered two of our teammates had irrational fears of the Sleepy Hollow headless horseman. We discovered our self-appointed and self-important team captain, Jay, has a deep seeded childhood trauma from a Taboo game gone wrong, and I have not seen a temper tantrum throw like that in a good 20 years: “TABOO IS THE WORST GAME EVER!” We discovered that you can lose a phone in the cracks of the bleachers; we discovered that colored headbands make us easier targets for the other team, and last but not least we discovered that we all are very happy to have met each other and participated in this league.

In an attempt to cloud source my work for this blog I emailed the whole team for input, and in an “aww” moment, we realized that what mattered most to all of us was the budding friendships we’d made, the fun we’d had, and a desire to beat the snot out of the red team who embarrassed us on multiple occasions with a coordinated attack involving misdirection, distraction and a ruthlessness unseen in Stamford since the great squirrel invasion of ’97.

I want to cap this blog entry off with my sincerest gratitude for everyone who has worked for ZogSports to make this winter so much more bearable and introducing me to my wonderful teammates (except captain Jay).

Dodge Burgandies will return stronger, faster, and better than before. Part II begins this spring.